


High Summer's End

by Thatonegothynerd



Series: Adventures of The Scarred [9]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 19:26:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17269664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatonegothynerd/pseuds/Thatonegothynerd
Summary: The Scarred wanted to take in a fireworks show to celebrate High Summer and the arrival of their old friend Tal, but they get a little more than they bargained for.





	High Summer's End

The fireworks were beautiful. Avarice had seen them as a child in Drynna twice, and a few times in Westrun for celebrations, but they were nothing compared to the brilliant display that lit up the night sky for High Summer. Up on the rooftop, they had a perfect view of the display away from the crowds below. Everyone was sitting by the roof’s edge, feet hanging over the side, and looking up. She leaned her head on Dragomir’s shoulder and he put a arm around her waist. It was moments like these that reminded her of how much she loved him, despite their fights. She wanted it to always be like this. 

Not even a minute had passed when she heard footsteps on the roof behind her. Her keen senses had picked them up between the booms of the glittering explosives in the sky. She immediately turned, on the defense, and saw the elven man standing there. She had only seen him once before, in a carriage with Elisandi. Avarice stood up to face him and heard the rest of her friends do the same. 

“Oh my, isn’t this interesting,” Elion said, amused smile on his face. 

“What do you want?” Avarice said. 

“Well I was told there was an impressive new group of adventurers in the area, and those can be profitable. However, I think I already know how you’ll respond to my offer,” he said.

“Leave. Now,” Dragomir said when he made no attempt to move.

“Where’s Immerel? I would love to speak with him.”

There was a long pause. No one wanted to be the one to say it.

“Immerel is dead,” Avarice said, looking Elion in the eyes. 

There was a moment of shock on Elion’s face, a break in his composure, but all too soon the wall was back. 

“That idiot,” Elion said, sounding more annoyed than anything. “He got himself killed. How stupid of him.”

Avarice felt Dragomir tense at her side at the insults, but she held out a hand in front of him, begging him not to move.

“He’s dead. So you can go now,” Avarice said. 

“I can’t just leave you all here. You’re actually a threat. I can’t have that.” 

Before Elion had even finished speaking, Dragomir had dragged his blade against his palm and his blade ignited. 

Then all hell broke loose. 

Elion brought out his whip, using it as both shield and weapon to attack Dragomir and defend himself. Kel transported themself and Millicent to a farther rooftop to get out of his range to attack. Dragomir and Tal went on the offensive, attempting to stop him before he stunned them or worse. Avarice wasn’t sure what to do, so she pushed Peony behind her and got back, hoping to keep the smaller and weaker girl safe from the master monk on the rooftop. 

The entire party used everything they had to fight against him, but despite all odds he was still standing. And for every blow Dragomir managed to land, three were hurled against him. Both men looked very hurt.

Avarice knew she had to act fast. Fear rose in her as she remembered what had happened on another rooftop only a month ago. She put away the bow she had been firing with and drew her rapier, hoping to direct his attention away from Dragomir. She struck, then Dragomir and Tal landed blows and something in Elion’s eyes shifted. Suddenly they were filled with… fear.

Before anyone could react, Elion ran. He bolted across the rooftop at top speed, almost stopped by Dragomir, but it was merely a delay. Dragomir was too slow to follow the monk at his speed, but Tal dashed after him, and Avarice, running faster than she ever had before, managed to get ahead of the monk and halt his escape. 

Avarice didn’t think. She stabbed him with her rapier, right through his traitorous heart, and whispered in his ear, “We’re going to finish what Immerel started.”

She removed her blade and his body fell off the roof, into the alley way below. Her hands reached out to try and catch him, but it was too late. His body hit the ground right as the finale of the fireworks show began, the thud masked by the boom.

What had she done? 

“Avarice?” she heard Tal say from behind her.“Is he dead?”

She nodded. “Yes. He’s dead.” Her voice sounded hollow even to her own ears.

“Should we do something with the body?” 

“We could turn him over to the guard, but I don’t want anyone to know that we did this. Elisandi is already a threat and if she finds out we killed Elion we’ll be in even more danger,” Avarice said. The other girl nodded in response. 

“Well she’s already gonna know silly!” Sybille said. Avarice turned to see Kel’s eyes had gone black, meaning that their body was being possessed by the ghost of Sybille yet again.

“I mean,” she continued, “who else was gonna kill him? It had to be us!”

“I don’t want to make it any easier for her. Leaving him there is our best option,” Avarice said, knowing full well that she had other reasons to leave him there. She couldn’t look at his body knowing she was the one that stuck the killing blow. It was her that put him there on the ground. Her fault. 

The rest of her friends nodded. Sybille was annoyed, but Avarice figured she could deal with that later. 

The fireworks display ended and there was silence on the roof as they all looked at one another. This wasn’t where any of them had seen the night going. 

“We should head back to our rooms. I think that’s enough action for the night,” Avarice said, and they did just that. 

The group walked together in silence besides the occasional attempt made by Sybille to say how cool the body was and Peony’s quiet reassurances to her that they would discuss it later. 

…

Once they were back at the Laughing Lamia, Dragomir headed upstairs to rest, his wounds getting the better of him. Sybille was still out in full swing and talking about whatever happened to be on her mind, but mostly about how cool the body looked. Tal and Peony tried to change the topic or even get her to bring Kel back, but for now they were stuck with her. 

After about an hour of this Avarice said she was going to head up to bed too. Tal, Peony, and Sybille all wished her goodnight, but a look in Millicent’s eyes said she was worried about the tiefling and knew something wasn’t right. Avarice tried to reassure her with a smile, but the look was still there as she headed up the stairs. 

Avarice did not go to her own room, instead she went to the empty room right next door that only a month ago had been Immerel’s. She sat on the edge of his bed and looked around the bare room. It looked exactly like her own, except the sheets on the bed had clearly never been touched. She listened and heard the gentle snoring of Dragomir in the room next door. She didn’t want to burden him with this. She didn’t want to burden anyone with her sadness. 

Avarice sat on the bed that had once belonged to her friend and began to cry. The tears were partly for Immerel, his plans for revenge he never got to see were finally completed. His order had been avenged in his name. The Order of the Hydra could rest in peace. But the tears were also for herself. She had ended a life today. She had killed before, hags and baby dragons and monsters, but she had never killed a person. Elion was a person. She could have reasoned with him. He was only there to talk at first, maybe she could have said the right thing and changed his mind. That sounded foolish even to her. There was nothing to be said that would have made him change. She could have used the bands in her bag. He was badly hurt and it would have been hard for him to escape. They could have turned him over to the authorities. But then Elisandi would have helped to free him. Plus, as far as they could prove, he had committed no crimes. They could have let him leave. But he was a threat. He would have been back for them. He would have brought more forces and killed them all. Every way she looked at it, Elion had to die, but that doesn’t mean she wanted to do it. Did he have a family? Did he have parents that would mourn him, just like Immerel? Would loved ones mourn the loss of such a man, one that had become a monster? Avarice knew from experience that the answer was yes. There were some people that would even mourn the monsters. 

Not too long after she sat down, Avarice heard a knock on the door. She tried her best to stifle her sobs, something she had gotten very good at over the years, and wiped her eyes. 

“Who is it?” she asked, voice more steady than it was moment ago. 

“It’s me,” Millicent said.

Avarice opened the door and the small girl was standing on the other side, surprised look on her face.

“Hey Mil. What is it? Is there something wrong?”

“No. Are you okay?”

“Um, no. Not really,” Avarice admitted despite herself. She let the other girl in and shut the door. 

“What’s wrong?” Millicent asked.

“Today has just been a lot for me, Mil.” As Avarice spoke. tears welled up in her eyes again.

Millicent pulled her into a hug, holding her tight against her chest for a moment before pulling back.

“Well that’s just too bad,” Millicent said, “but I have something for you,  _ from my sister _ .”

Millicent pulled out a dagger and plunged it into Avarice’s stomach. Avarice looked in horror and confusion as Millicent’s form shifted into that of a hag with boils covering every inch of her face. She cackled hideously as Avarice felt poison begin to surge through the wound. Avarice thanked the gods that her amulet chose that moment to kick in and block the poison from her system.

Avarice drew her rapier as two more hags appeared, one had a face that looked like it was nothing but skull, covered in a thin membrane of skin. The other was younger and less hag-like in appearance: She was a human with messy hair and dirt on her face, holding a large staff of some kind. Avarice recognized the first two immediately. They were the hags from Stillben, the two that had gotten away. The third must be their new member, the replacement for the one they had managed to kill, their sister. 

Avarice didn’t have it in her to face them alone right now, so she did the only thing she could: she screamed. She screamed at the top of her lungs, using her magic granted to her by her ancestors to amplify the sound to a far greater than her lungs could alone. Every person in the tap room could hear, possibly every person in this part of the city. 

The boil faced one lunged at her, but Avarice parried the attack and not a moment later Dragomir appeared, furious. By the time Sybille, Tal, Peony, and the real Millicent arrived, the boil-faced hag was near dead and the other two were attempting a retreat. Dragomir finished off boil-face and the rest of the group made quick work of skull-face. The third one managed to jump out the window before she was stopped by magic. Tal quickly followed and managed a blow before Dragomir was outside too, sword making a horrible dragging noise against the ground as he walked up to her. He swung and took her head off, separating it cleanly from her body. 

Avarice didn’t stay to watch what happened outside, she simply walked back to her own room. As she entered she felt a familiar hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Millicent, the real Millicent, staring at her, concern written all over her face. She pulled Avarice into a hug as yet again Avarice began to cry. 

“Shhhh. It’s okay,” Millicent said, gently stroking her friend’s horns. “They can’t hurt you anymore. He can’t hurt you anymore. They’re dead. He’s dead.”

Avarice didn’t know if she meant Elion, but a part of her knew that’s not the he she was referring to. 

“Do you want me to stay with you?” Avarice weakly nodded in response. 

“Okay,” Millicent said, and kissed her friend on the shoulder, leaving a black kiss behind. “I’ll stay as long as you need me.”

…

It was about ten minutes before Dragomir was able to get past the crowd and guards bombarding him with questions about what had just happened and back up to his room to Avarice. 

She was sitting on the end of the bed with Millicent. The smaller girl was rubbing comforting circles on her back while she cried her now silent tears. 

“Millicent, you can go now. Thank you, for everything,” Avarice said as she saw Dragomir. Her white eyes were red around the edges and her eye makeup was smeared down her face. 

Millicent waited for Dragomir to sit down on the bed before she left, making sure her friend was taken care of. Dragomir wrapped his arms around Avarice, rocking slowly back and forth with her. He silent tears turned to sobs in her love’s strong arms as they sat together in the night.

“It’s okay. It’s okay,” he repeated, trying his best to comfort her. “Everything is going to be okay. Tomorrow will be a better day. I love you.”

After a while Avarice had no tears left to cry. She fell asleep in her love’s embrace and drifted off into a fitful sleep.

…

After she left Avarice to Dragomir, hoping to the gods that he could help her, Millicent headed downstairs. 

“Millicent?” Kel asked, finally back to themself.

“I’m here Kel,” she replied. 

“What are you doing down here?”

“I couldn’t sleep, so I came down here.” Not entirely a lie on her part, but what she didn’t say was that she couldn’t sleep because she was afraid for Avarice. She was afraid that her closest friend was going to undo months of progress she had made because of this terrible night. She had already let her down once because she couldn’t catch her, she wouldn’t let Avarice sabotage herself with her drinking again. 

“Okay,” Kel said, “I’ll stay down here with you too. I don’t need much sleep anyway.”

The two stayed in the taproom until daybreak, but Avarice stayed up in her room. Millicent smiled one of her rare, small smiles to herself. Avarice would make it through this. She was stronger than she was before. 

**Author's Note:**

> All characters belong to their respective players. I do not claim to own Kel, Sybille, Tal, Dragomir, Peony, or Millicent.


End file.
